Drake Olson’s Research: Understanding Genocide during the Bosnian War

Posted by Elly Fieffer

“My research seeks to provide a more complete explanation of the determinate factors of the ethnic cleansing of Bosniaks during the Bosnian War in the 1990s, commonly referred to as the Bosnian Genocide. Drawing upon arguments from the various areas of post-Yugoslav scholarship, I argue that the ethnic cleansing committed by Serbian militaries in the region of Bosnia and Herzegovina during the 1990s is best understood as being caused by the creation and manipulation of a Serbian Manifest Destiny centered on the establishment of a Greater Serbia in response to national instability. The economic and political situation of Yugoslavia by the 1980s produced national instability, which set the table for internal conflict between the republics. This instability was acted on by Serbian nationalists like Slobodan Milošević and Radovan Karadžić through a specific use of ethnonationalist rhetoric made effective by the history of the Serbian ethnic group. What resulted was a Serb identity that was weaponized by its cultivators for the sake of establishing an ethnically pure Greater Serbia at all costs. It is this pursuit that motivated and guided the genocidal actions of the VRS in Srebrenica and elsewhere during the Bosnian war.

This project began as a paper on the historiography of Yugoslav scholarship on the collapse of Yugoslavia. Taking my knowledge gained from that research and rolling in my experience as a philosophy student, a wholistic examination of the Bosnian Genocide through historical scholarship, social theory and theology seemed both achievable and fulfilling as a research project.

Currently I don’t have any plans for this work specifically. However, I may use my expertise gained through the process of creating it to study the treatment of Uyghur Muslims in China for a thesis project.”

 

Carly Collins’ Research: Pre-Civil War History of Cass County, MI

Posted by Elly Fieffer

“My research project focused on a rural, southwestern Michigan region called Cass County, which has a unique pre-Civil War history. Many Cass County Quakers were Underground Railroad station masters, which led to a slave raid by Kentucky slave owners, the establishment of a fugitive slave settlement called Ramptown, and has since celebrated its successful abolition movements with a local historical society’s annual summer festival called Underground Railroad Days.

I chose this topic because my family used to own a small lake house in the area, where we frequently drove by a colorful mural depicting the slave raid. This sparked my interest in learning about Cass County’s history and how it connects to the larger, national pre-Civil War history. I hope to potentially make my project into a thesis where I would plan to interview the historical society members and other Cass County residents.”

Ericela Sahagun’s Research: A Modern Analysis the Chicano Movement

Posted by Elly Fieffer

“To be a Chicano in the mid 20th century meant witnessing the Chicano Movement that was occurring on the west coast. Though, to be a Chicano in the Midwest meant having the responsibility to carry the themes of this social movement to a region where the cultural and social representation of the Chicano community was scarce. The purpose of this research project was to uncover the ways in which The Midwest Council of La Raza(MWCLR) impacted this region of the country and further established and empowered the lasting Mexican American presence. The group of midwestern representatives and university students made it their goal to highlight the issues that impacted the Chicano community in the Midwest such as immigration, activism, and workers’ rights.

As a third generation self-identifying Chicana now located in Indianapolis, I am curious as to how the Chicano experience has both aligned and diverged from the narrative deriving from the west coast that largely dominates the field of Latino/a studies across the country. Though I do not foresee myself continuing research on this particular organization in the near future, my hope is that my research will give a midwestern voice to the field of Latino/a Studies, one that has largely been dominated by the southwestern narrative.”

Elly Fieffer’s Research: The Development of Women from Myth to Film

Posted by Elly Fieffer

My research project this semester is titled the Classical Divinity of the 1940’s Femmes Fatales where I compared a few ancient Greek goddesses to a few “killer” leading ladies in the postwar era United States. I compare the goddess Aphrodite to Lilly Powers of Baby Face, who is gorgeously powerful, Hera to Brigid O’Shaughnessy of The Maltese Falcon, practically perfect and cunning, and lastly Thetis to Gilda of Gilda with untamable ambition. There was so many comparisons that I did not think of when starting this project, but the more I worked on it, I began to even surprise myself with how similar the two pieces were to each other.

This project was super fun for me because it combines some of my interests from a young age and how my thoughts have developed over time. I remember calling my mom early in the semester, panicked about not knowing what to do. She told me to explore something new, but something I already loved so it didn’t feel like work. Taking her advice, I started piecing ideas together. I started with a timeframe and some general interests. I’ve always really loved the American 1920s through the 1950s. Freshman year I took a class with Dr. Deno called Reel America where we analyzed American history through film, so when I started thinking about this timeframe, I thought why not attach the film aspect to it and explore women’s roles. I was also really attached to the idea doing something with mythology, but I wasn’t quite sure what to do since it was so broad. After working through a variety of ideas, the project before you is what came to light.

I would love to turn this into thesis and expand into the modern era, looking into different genres and touch on a few other films from this era that I wanted to incorporate, but did not get a chance to include this time around.